The ATF does not consider someone a fugitive if they are attempting to purchase a gun in the state where they are wanted.

A decades-long dispute over what defines a “fugitive” has resulted in the illegal sale of more than 2,000 guns, an internal Justice Department review found.

Federal law ostensibly bars fugitives from buying firearms — but the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives disagree over who falls into that category.

An audit from the Justice Department inspector general found that the dispute resulted in hundreds of transactions between 1999 and 2015 that otherwise should have been denied, according to a release from the Office of the Inspector General.

In that time period, the FBI denied 49,448 transactions to fugitives that ATF agents "did not consider approprite denials. 2,183 of these transactions resulted in firearms transfers that the FBI believed should have been denied, but the ATF did not agree and did not attempt to recover the firearms," the release states.

The interagency dispute has gone unresolved for eight years. It stems from an ATF policy which only designates wanted gun buyers as "fugitives" if they attempt to purchase the weapon outside of the state where their warrant was issued, USA Today reported.

The FBI asked for the dispute to be resolved in 2010, but six years later it remains a problem, the audit found.

(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The FBI denies firearm purchases by wanted individuals regardless of the where the transaction occurs. A "fugitive" flag would crop up during routine background checks at the time of the sale.

The FBI requested a “formal reconsideration” of the ATF’s policy on fugitives in 2010, “but more than six years later no decision has been rendered so the dispute continues,” the release stated.

The review recommends the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel step in to resolve the dispute once and for all.

"We believe this issue should be addressed as soon as possible," the inspector general said at the conclusion of its review.